Call for proposals: Infecting the City arts festival in SA

The Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) and Africa Centre are calling on artists to submit proposals to present at the Infecting the City public arts festival in Cape Town, South Africa, from 25 to 30 November.

The event will provide an opportunity for applicants to bring art, music, dance and performance out of theatres and galleries. The artists will be able to showcase their art directly on the streets and public spaces of Cape Town.

How to apply

Interested candidates should submit a single PDF file with the following details:

Applicant’s contact details: name, email address and phone number.

Applicants should give an outline of proposed creative artwork that will be presented at Infecting the City 2019 (not more than one page). The artwork should include images and links wherever needed.

If the artwork has been showcased somewhere, applicants need to include links to access the work.

Curriculum vitae of artist(s) or company.

Precise budget about the monetary support from the ICA.

Proposal layout

The proposal can be for a full ensemble piece, an intervention, a live performance, a visual art piece, an installation, a video, a happening, working with technology, via social media, totally interactive or some other form newly imagined.

All works should be situated in, or interact with, a public environment, and should actively engage intentional and incidental audiences in compelling ways. This focus on public participation/audience involvement will be a very strong recommendation.

The festival does not have a specific theme, but it encourages works that concern issues of urbanity, that prompt audiences to perceive shared spaces and spatial politics in new ways, that are imbricated with South Africa’s socio-political context. Works may be short and whimsical, full length or comprise sustained participation over a few days.

Successful applications will receive technical and venue/site-specific support, technical management and operation, and marketing and administrative support. In addition, projects will be offered some monetary support to augment their budgets.

Proposals should be submitted to ica@uct.ac.za with 'ITC PROPOSAL' in the subject line.

The submission deadline is 31 May (5pm).

“Infecting the City reinterprets shopping hubs and transport as transformative stages to showcase an array of multidisciplinary art forms. The platform is intended to encourage artists to display their artworks related to historical and contemporary narratives relevant to the city and its people,” the ICA said.

For more information about the call, visit the ICA official website or contact the institute on +27 21 650 7156.